The word “Solid” has become meaningless

Following on the footsteps of Bill McBride, in “Another solid GDP report” James Hamilton wants us to believe that this is meaningful:

The Bureau of Economic Analysis announced yesterday that U.S. real GDP grew at a 2.6% annual rate in the third quarter. Even factoring in the dismal start to the year, that leaves full-year GDP growth during 2014 at 2.4% (the best annual performance since 2010) and growth at an annual rate of 4% over the last 9 months.

The data does not convey that spirit at all. Real growth has shown little variation since 2010, mostly reflecting the maintenance of a rather low and stable NGDP growth.

In other words, “mediocre” has come to mean “solid”!

Note: The “shortfall” in 2011 real growth is largely due to the 20% rise in oil prices, which remained quite stable in the ensuing years.